Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

I read a good deal today about the fear of death and there are some people who believe that the greatest fear that man faces is the fear of death. I’ve come to believe that our greatest fear is not the fear of death, but the fear of insignificance, the fear that we shall live our years upon this earth and when we are through that it will be as though we have nev...

Some time ago the Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney quoted Herodotus as saying, “The greatest tragedy that could come to any person’s life is to aspire to do much and then to achieve little.” And Marney said, “No, that is not so. The greatest tragedy is to aspire to do something, and to do it, and then to discover it’s not worth doing.&rdqu...

I’ve been impressed as I’ve studied Christian history to see God so very oftentimes use ordinary people—those people who seem most unlikely to be used—to do his great work. All of us have heard of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher of another generation. He spoke to 5,000 people every Sunday morning and 5,000 people every Sunday night....

Maybe I’ve shared with you the experience of one of the greatest football coaches I’ve ever known. He was the athletic director at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, where I pastored, and he was a small college Bear Bryant. He had the kind of record, disposition, and reputation that Bear Bryant had. Most everybody was afraid of him. But he cam...

We are in the greatest business on earth and God has something for us to do. We are not here just to occupy time and space and to give our money. We are to be his workers. I’m not worried about anybody becoming a fanatic. It is easier to cool off a fanatic than it is to resurrect the dead! We need some people with that holy fire inside of them. There is nothing...

A Sunday school teacher, a Mr. Kimball, in 1858 led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist. In England in 1879, he awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Fredrick B. Myer, the pastor of a small church. F. B. Meyer, preaching to an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapin....

There are all kinds of partnerships in life. There are marriage partners, dancing partners, tennis partners, and business partners. However, the greatest of all partnerships is the privilege of being a partner with God and his great work. The apostle Paul speaks of this when he says, “We are labourers together with God” (1 Corinthians 3:9). To every...

There are some things in life that are priceless. Money cannot buy them and poverty cannot take them away. One of these is a virtuous woman. Proverbs 31:10-31 describes such a lady. The writer asks, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” Rich indeed is the man who has a virtuous wife. Fortunate beyond measure is the child who h...

In the play, “The Fool,” by Channing Pollack, there is a powerful scene. A rich woman speaks of her furs as “a substitute for my husband’s time and love and companionship.” The husband’s father is listening to this and reacts with frustration, saying, “I don’t know what you women want. A man works his heart and soul out...